mandela's story. between 1986 and 1990, the right honorable gentleman member for bermondsey and old southwark , i and peter pike, the former member for burnley, made three visits to south africa at the invitation of the followers of christ working for a peaceful resolution of the situation there. on our return from our first visit, on june 17, we made joint speeches in a debate here in the house of commons, referring to each other as our honorable friends -- a point duly noted by hansard. we had gone together -- safety in numbers -- at a time when the anc was still banned, the political situation was deteriorating, violence was abroad, and where the isolation of south africa was impacting on the flow of anything but very polarised information. we were able to report back to our respective party leaders on what we found. i had half an hour with an anxious, worried, and very uncertain margaret thatcher. we reported back on the tragic success of apartheid in separating one person from another, on the urg